Questions and Answers about Clothing

Question: I am about to direct a production of The Trojan Women and want to a
uthenticate costumes while relating the universality of the tragedy to the genoc
ide of The American Indian The Jews (WWII) and Kosovo – any suggestions, ide
as welcomed!!!! Thanks!

Answer: I have recently read the Iliad with a view to the costumes. My
guess is that the costumes painted on the stone sarcophagus found at Agia
Triada, Crete are most like the costumes of Troy at the time of
the Trojan War. This object is at the Archeological Museum, Heraklion, Crete
and is visible on their website at Click Here.

On the sarcophagus there are two types of skirts in evidence: woven and
animal hide. The hide skirts have rounded hems, while the hems of the woven
ones are straight. On the same page is the
Miniature sculpture of the snake goddess. She wears a flounced skirt with
her breasts exposed. This dress was probably also used at Troy. This is
likely the dress which Aphrodite wore when she
visited Helen in Homer’s Iliad. My guess is that this dress was reserved
for goddesses and priestesses who represented goddesses. The skirts on the
sarcophagus are more like the dress worn every day.

Question: What kind of clothes did the Mycenaeans wear?

Answer: There is good reason to believe that the Mycenaeans wore the same
dress as the Minoans on Crete. The nature of the dress is described in the
previous answer.

What were clothes made out of in ancient Greece?

Answer: Early on most clothes were made out of the skins of animals.
By the Archaic period women wore clothes woven of wool or linen. Silk
was available from China and cotton or muslin from Egypt, but they were
expensive.

Question: What clothing did goddesses wear?

Answer: They did not have to wear any clothing at all and are sometimes
pictured totally nude. This often symbolizes their purity. During the
ancient Greek period they are often shown wearing fine clothes that are
contemporary to the artist. This would include peplos, chiton, and himation
for the classical Greeks. The clothing of the goddesses is described as having been women of gossamer.

Question: why are woman clothed and men are not?

Answer: During the classical period women were secluded. When they were
seen they had a lot of clothes on. The men, on the other hand, were often
unclothed as they participated in athletic contest without clothes. This
custom was established very early because an athlete was killed when he
tripped and was strangled by his clothes. Because of its associations
with athletic contests, the nude pose came to be considered heroic and
appropriate for all heroes, not just athletic ones.

Question: Could you show me some things that the Greek goddess wore?

Answer: The robe of the goddess Athena was holy to the Athenians and a
new robe was made and presented each year. This garment is depicted in the
following image:
Click here
The web page on Athena has several pictures showing her fully dressed at:Click here

Getting on the chiton or peplos was easy since either was essentially
two rectangles of material. The trick was gathering it and tieing it
properly and gathering it so it looked right. Making a Peplos.

Question: what about the children in ancient greece??

Answer: The ancient Greeks considered children to be just miniature people.
The went naked until they could wear adult clothes.

These servants were lucking that they had clothing at all. Slaves were often nude. Many slaves wore the garments of their home country. It is not actually possible to tell whether a servant was a slave or a relative by their dress.

Question: What did girls wear in ancient Greece

Answer: The same clothes as the women.

Question: What is a chiton?

Answer: A chiton is a garment consisting of two rectangle of material
sewed together on the short ends with an opening in the middle for the neck.
sometime the material is tied along the arms to form sleeves.

Question: were the woman always nude?

Answer: Women were portrayed nude much less frequently than men. Few wives
are ever portrayed nude. Hetaerae are more commonly portrayed nude. After
Praxiteles carved his Aphrodite of Cnidos nude, Aphrodite was often portrayed
nude.

Answer: They raised the sheep, sheared the sheep for wool,
carded the wood, spun the wool into yarn, and then wove the yarn
into rectangles of cloth. Two rectangles of cloth were pinned
together to make a garment. Flax was grown for this purpose. Cotton had to be imported from Egypt. Silk cloth came from China.

Question: i am doing a project i would like to know what the regular daily life style for a grec boy or girl

Question: Did the Ancient Greeks use dyes to color thier clothing and if so what colors would have been used and what would they have used to dye the material?

Answer: The ancient Greeks used dyes. Indigo is a possibility. Saffron
was certainly available. Barks and plants produce a variety of other colors.
Berries and Beets produce a red so they would have had most colors. The
following image from the Minoan Civilization give a likely range of colors:
Click here. This young woman is gathering saffron, one of the dye stuffs.

Question: Did color of clothing have any specific meanings or differ for social classes ( other than due to cost of materials)?

Answer: No, in ancient Greece rich people wore expensive clothes and
jewelry. Purple was the most expensive, while red was second.

Question: what kind of clothing was worn by people in the city-state of Halicarnassas

Answer: Here is a statue from Halicarnassus at about 300 BCE:
Click here

Question: Did ancient Greek women dye their clothes different colors

Answer: Yes they did. Many bight colors can be obtained from natural
substances.

Question: What did the house wives and the little girls wear for their daily outfits?

Answer: Pelops and chitons.

Question: What is the difference between now and the clothes back then in ancient greece?

Answer: The biggest difference is underwear. They did not have any. The
next difference is soap. They had none. Olive oil was added to the cloth
so it would be more comfortable. Clothes now fit the body. Clothes then
were based on rectangular pieces which were easy to weave.

Question: i need to find a picture of a greek man wearing a himation
and a child wearing a himation so can you find 2 pictures

Question: What would Eros have worn when going to sleep, are there any pictures?

Answer: In classical art Eros was portrayed nude so I suppose this is the
way he slept. One of the most popular paintings at the Cleveland Museum of
Art is Cupid and Psyche by Jacques Louis David(French, 1748-1825).
In this painting Eros is rising from sleep and is nude. You can view this
painting in the collection higlights in the collection section of the web
site for the Cleveland Museum of Art at:Click here.
This painting alone is worth the trip to Cleveland, but they also have a fine
classical collection and many other exhibits.

Question: WHAT KIND OF CLOTHING DID ANCIENT GREEKS WEAR AROUND 1200 TO 700 B.C.?

Answer: You are asking about the Greek dark ages and very little is known
about this period. It was a period of constant chaos and change. The Mycenaean Collection of the National Archaeological Musem of Athens is a good place to start: Mycenaean Antiquities.

Question: masks

Answer: Greek actors wore masks to portray different personas when they
were performing in Greek dramas.

Answer: The most important weapon was the beaked ship that the Greeks rowed to
battle. They were the masters of the sea. They also used spears, swords, shields,
and bows and arrows. During and before the Trojan war most of the weapons were made
of bronze, and the armor was hard leather. By the Classical period the weapons were
made of steel and the armor was made of steel and bronze.

Question: What tools did the women use to cook, clean, make cloth, etc. I
would appreciate any pictures you may have.

Answer: Most likly she wore the clothing of the Mycenaean Culture. But the oldest pictures we have of her are from Classical Greece. These pictures show her with the clothing of classical Greece.

Question: the average life sxpectancy of a man and woman in Greece

Answer: Due to the high infant mortality the average life-span was about
35 years.

Question: HOW WERE GREEK WOMEN EADUCATED?

Answer: Greek women were often educated in the home. Often they were schooled
by other women such as their mother, but they also were schooled by a brother
who went outside the home to get to school or their father. Sometimes they
were able to attend a dance or music school. As soon as they were married
they were schooled by their husband who often was ten years their senior. A woman might also be schooled by her husbands female relatives, particularly her mother-in-law.
Their were special scools for hetaerae that included rhetoric, in addition
to music and dance.

Question: What is the costume dress of a young lady in greece

Answer: The same chiton, peplos, and himation of the older women.

Question: Ineed a picture of a slaves clothing but not on a pot

Answer: Slavery was a part of Greek culture. But slaves did not dress
differently except that many were foreigners who dressed in the clothes of
their country of origin.

Answer: For possibilities click here. The apron which this mannikin wears is a model of the girdle of Hippolyta. It is also a model for the belt of Aphrodite. This was a ceremonial garment that
women wore to indicate their status. The girdle was woven by Elizabeth Howard,
of Kent.

Answer: Most important would be a shining crown on your head with a
symbol of a dove on it. Next would be a wand in your hand with a shere on
the end representing a quince. The gown should be silk and diaphanous, but
it consists of two or more rectangles of material as wide as you are from
wrist to wrist with your arms streched out and as long as you are high at the
shoulders. If one layer is too transparent you should add more layers. Half
of the pieces are on your front and the other half on your
back fastened on the short ends above your shoulders. The material is
then gathered with one or more belts to provide sleeves or folds as suits the
weather.

The following shows the way the garment is fastened at the top:
Click here

The following shows a more sleveless effect that is obtained by gathering
the material more:
Click here

The material is on the order of a long night gown. You might achieve the
effect by wearing several night gowns, one on top of the other. A pleated
material will add a lot. The crown
and the wand will define the character.

Question: What does a the Greece costume for women called a Stephane look
like?

Answer: stephane Artemis, wearing a himation draped over her
shoulders, a thin chiton with an overfold, a thin stephane and wreath in her
hair. The stephane is the hair band.

Question: what are the colors of ancient greek dresses?

Answer: Every color of the rainbow. The ancient greeks liked bright colors.
For most of the stuff we have preserved the colors have faded or worn off.

Question: i have a research and i need a complete informatoins about how
women were expressed and represented through the greek art ?

Answer: Greek art focuses on societal interactions. Women are favorably
portrayed in flowing gowns and comely appearance. Many of their activities
are represented including some very private ones. In fact, the quality of
their representation is surprising in view of the degraded position they
hold in the descriptions of the classical Greek Society. This is possibly due
to the fact that the subject of classical Greek art is a society of 500
years in the past that held women more highly.

Question: What would a huntress usually wear and what particular colours. Hair? What about Polyxena?

Answer: The classical artists did not portray practical clothes. Amazons. At the beginning of the article is
a picture of a mannikin dressed in what I think would be a practical outfit.
But check out Artemis to see what the classical artists thought.

Question: where can i find a picture of a women wearing the Ancient Greek
clothing.

Answer: You must click on the underlined links above to view the pictures.

Question: I know what a stola looks like, but what is it in relation to the
clothing that the Greeks wore? Several years ago I did a presentation on
ancient Greek dress. For a source, I used my friend’s mother, who studied
Greek and ancient Greece in college. She seemed to think that the stola was
a major part of Greek dress, but it’s not mentioned on your website. She
taught me how to make it, but I’ve forgotten. If it was in any way an
important part of Greek dress, could you give me information on it and tell
me how to make it? Thanks!

Answer: This does not seem to be something the ancient Greeks wore, but
instructions on how to make it are at:
Click here

Question: How has clothing changed through the years?

Answer: The earliest clothing was the skins of animals that were wrapped around the body. After spinning was developed garments could be made from knotted string. Later weaving produced rectangles of cloth that were wrapped around the body also. As weaving and sewing advanced clothes were made to conform more to the body’s shape. Pants were first developed in cold climates while skirts were fashioned in very warm climates. Temperate climates chose
pants for men and skirts for women. Practicality also affected design. Collars were originally replaceable items to protect shirts from being soiled by greasy, long hair. Underwear is a recent development to promote personal hygiene.

Answer: The ancient Greek women wove the cloth then they sewed it into
clothes.

Question: were there women warriors?

Answer: Yes there were. Most of the women warriors were Amazons. Atalanta and Artemisia were also warriors. Artemisia I and II were historical queens. Olympias of Macedonia is classified as a warrior as well.

Question: i’m makinga costume for “ancient greek ” party. what would the
lenthg be for a male senator and if i want a belt what would the design be?

Answer: There were no senators in ancient Greece until Roman times. The
ancient Greeks were all citizens. The men wore chitons and tunics just like
the women. The length varied from mid-thigh to floor length. The following
details the extremes:
Click here.Hector, the warrior, has a belt in his hand.

The following details a belt around the waist of Dionysos:
Click here.

Question: ok im having some problems with a class project i have to drees
up like apollo if you have anyideas they would really help out a lot , also
if you know what kind of sing he has that would be great too.thankz

Answer: During the classical period the chiton was the most common for women. During
the archaic period the peplos was the most common for women. Durin the Mycenaean period
the women wore a long sleeved vest, a girdle, and a flounced skirt.

Question: what were the colours of clothing worn by men women and children
in ancient greece

Answer: Every color of the rainbow.

Question: what were the dresses made of?

Answer: most were wool, some were linen, a few were cotton, and even fewer
were silk. In the archaic period some skirts were made of the hides of
animals. Skins were more common in the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures, while
earlier cultures wore skins entirely.

Question: how were greek dresses made?

Answer: Read above.

Question: What was the childrens clothing?

Answer: Children went naked until they could wear adult clothing.

Question: why wont you let me see the picture is it. I have a project due
tomorrow and I really need this information.

Answer: To see the pictures you must click on the undelined links. If
you still have trouble I can email the picture to you. Just tell me what you
need.

Question: what do all of the colors for the greek costumes mean?

Answer: Wedding dresses were usually red. White was the color of death and black was the color of birth. Purple, because of the cost, was the color of royalty.

Question: how do Greek imperial female portrait statues look like in 4th
century bc?

Answer: Alexander conquered Greece in 338 BCE and there were no imperial
females before this time. After the death of Alexander the Great in 323
BCE there were imperial females in the hellenistic states. I know of no
portraits of queens in the period 323 – 300 BCE.

Question: I would like to be Aphrodite for halloween, but not exactly nude.
How do I make or find a great Aphrodite costume??

Answer: You would be better fo focus on Aphrodite’s symbols. She would have
worn a fine chiton, perhaps even with a peplos over it. She would have a
crown in her hair. Useful accessories include: a dove, a love apple, a mirror
and a comb, a fishtail or a scallop shell. A mermaid is Aphrodite transformed
to later mythology. Some images show Aphrodite with a crown with a dove in
it.

Question: what did ancient greece man wear in theater?

Answer: A chiton or a himation.

Question: why is this fucking sit so goddamn gay?

Answer: Homosexuality was tolerated by the ancient Greeks. The Christian
culture of today does not tolerate it. But the present thinking is that
homosexuals have no control over their feelings and should not be the
subject of prejudice.

Question: did people always walk compleatly naked in the sreet

Answer: No. People did not walk naked in the street. Nudity was much
more common in public, and it was not a criminal activity as it is today.
Most nudity was among young children. Clothes bring respectibility and
this is a quality that most desired. Nudity would have been reserved for
special occasions such as a wedding, an athletic contest, or the birth of a
child.

Question: What is a flounced , girdle , peplop and a chilton?

Answer: These are described in the glossary at the beginning of the article.
It is flounced skirt, girdle, peplos, and chiton.

Question: what kinds of clothes were worn in the oddysey, ex. odysseus,
Athena, Circe?

Answer: These people were Mycenaean so they wore clothes more like the
Minoans. The ancient Greeks picture them in clothes of the classical period
but this is not correct.

Question: i’ve been looking 4 a picture of both poor people and rich
people can u please help me with this

Answer: Because of the skill of the ancient Greek artists and because of the idealization of the clothing, clothing like the ancient Greeks is very difficult to draw and make it look anything like the ancient artists drew. One approach should be getting a person to wear an ancient Greek costume and drawing from this model.

Question: where do the greeks live now

Answer: The Roman Empire scattered Greeks all over because they were in
demand as teachers. Many went to Rome to live. Some of the Greeks that live in Hellas
today are decendants of the ancient Greeks. But the Greece of today does not exactly correspond to the ancient Greece of Classical times. And in 2000 years there have been many immigrants to these lands.

Question: greek drancer dress

Answer: The chiton was commonly used. The garment would be folded around
the waist and tied so the length was appropriate to the activity. Of course
many of the dancers were naked.

Question: why were women thrown out if they wore a pin after the battle of
marathon?

Answer: The pins that the women used in peplos were quite sturdy and long
and they began to use them as weapons.

Question: average weight?

Answer: The effects of the folds illustrated in the vace paintings suggest
a material that is very light and fine. Of course the weight used would vary
with the weather. The common response to my question as to the nature of
the material required for the effects illustrated, is that the artists had
conventions of illustration whih did not correspond to reality. To me this
seems highly unlikely. I have commisioned a weaver to produce a chiton so
this situation can be investigated.

Question: how do i make a simple togo costume to wear to work on
halloween? please help…

Answer: The ancient Greeks wore a chiton or a peplos and not a toga. See How to make a peplos. The main difference between a peplos and a chiton is that the peplos is pinned at the top and the chiton is sewn.

Question: How did ancent fabrics and textiles get traded around the mediterraneann

Answer: Sailing ships operated by traders sailed around the Mediterranean.

Question: Did they have restaurants????????????????????

Answer: Most business people had their business right in their home. Though
there were no restaurants in our sense there were plenty of homes you could go
to buy a meal.

Question: can you give me some pictures of the masks that they wore and
information about the masks

Question: I’m doing a big project on Greece can you PLEASE tell me what Greeks
wore on special occasions what were they like?

Answer: The clothing styles changed dramatically in ancient Greece so that the clothing during the Minoan, Mycenaean, archaic, and classical periods were similar but different. However generally the best clothing was worn for special occasions. In The Odyssey of homer, line25 Ahtena says to Nausicaa:

“Nausicaa, how comes it that thy mother bore thee so heedless? Thy bright raiment is lying uncared for; yet thy marriage is near at hand, when thou must needs thyself be clad in fair garments, and give other such to those who escort thee. It is from things like these, thou knowest, that good report goeth up among men, and the father and honored mother rejoice.”

Question: What were bathrooms like?

Answer: There were few bathrooms in ancient Greece. Most people used a
wash basin and a bed pan for wastes. Water had to be hauled from a spring or
a well for use. The wastes were then spread on the agricultural fields.
Sometimes a spring house had tubs for bathing. Some bathing was done in a local
stream. Only later were aquaducts built that delivered water to individual homes
in Greece, while this was a common practice of the Romans.

Question: How may a rich Greek’s clothes be different from a poor Greek’s?

Answer: Quantity and quality of jewelry is often an indicator of status. But in Ancient Greece silever was more valuable than gold. The fineness of the material and its color is important too. Linen was the cheapest, wool next, then cotton, then silk the most expensive. As to colors brown was the cheapest, yellow was next, then red, then purple was the most
expensive color. For brown dye they used oak bark; for pink, roots of the herb madder; for yellow, stalks of weld; and for blue, dried wood leaves. Purple was extracted from the marine gastropod mollusc “murex”, which has a spiny shell and lives near the coasts of Mediterranean sea. The island of Amorgos was named from the Mourgos plant from which a rare red dye was extracted to colour royal tunics. Saffron was used to produce yellow.

Question: What did the clothing in Ancient Greek drama look like?

Answer: The actors wore everyday street clothes.

Question: did the acient greek people wear socks?

Answer: They wore neither socks nor any other underwear. This made their
hygeine more difficult and increased the spread of disease.

Question: what did kings wear?

Answer: Kings were scarce in classical and archaic Greece but they wore the
same clothes as everyone else. The color purple was expensive so they wore
that. In the Mycenaean period they wore Mycenaean garb. This included robes
mainly.

Question: what did Greek actors wear?

Answer: Their street clothes.

Question: I need to find costumes of a rich male, rich female, religous
leader and a military leader of ancient greece. PLEASE HELP ME!!!!

Answer: They all wore the same clothes in Ancient Greece. The military
leader would wear armor.

Answer: Clothes were a lot more expensive. Wool was hand spun, then
hand-woven into cloth, and finally hand sewn into articles. A person might
have to sacrifice a month or more of wages for one change of clothes. But they would wear the same clothes for a year or more.

Question: How did the woman of ancient Greece make and put on their clothes?

Answer: The dresses that the women wore were essentially two rectangles of
cloth, one for the front and one for the back and fastened over the shoulders. The different looks that were achieved were obtained by tying and folding differently.

Question: what are some names and descriptions of clothing for the
differant classes

Answer: The clothing did not differ by class except that foreigners were of lower class and wore foreign costumes. The color differed. Purple
was expensive and high classed. And Jewelry differed. High class people wore
crowns and silver and gold.

Question: what kind of clothing is worn over the peplos?

Answer: The himation is a cloak-like garment sometimes worn over the peplos.

Question: I’m in a production of “By Jupiter”, which is a show about the
Amazons, the Greeks, and the quest for the girdle of Diana. I’m playing the
Amazon Queen and need costume ideas. Please help!

Answer: The concept of girdle can be handled in a number of ways as is
illustrated in the following:click here

Question: Did they wher togas and if they did can you show me pictures and
give me information.

Answer: The ancient Greeks did not wear togas but they wore chitons, which
are similar.

Question: Did the wealthier people have a different wardrobe than the others?

Answer: No. But they wore more expensive material and jewelry.

Question: Do we have evidence to prove that Roman or Greek Women wore cosmetics specifically from 1-100 AD, or silver or bronze jewelry during that period?

Answer: It seems extremely likely that Greek women wore cosmetics during the period 1-100 AD. There is hardly any time when women failed to wear these things. But producing evidence will be a lot of work. In the end evidence will be found, however. Here is what I found:

You will have to search for artifacts from the various museums, some, such as the MET have their collections online. This would be a great justification for traveling to Europe and reviewing the lesser museums of Greece and Magna Graeca (Sicily, southern Italy, Libya, and southern France). You might even find an archaeological dig working in this area.